Correct use of Headings

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Correct use of Headings

m8fyu

11:57 pm on Jul 12, 2011 (gmt 0)

My page content is structured with h1, h2, h3 tags in the primary content (main) and h4, h5 in the secondary content (sidebar).

However sometimes I may not need a h3 tag in my primary content but my secondary content still includes h4 and h5 tags. Does this affect my SEO? If so whats the best way around this.

tangor

2:28 am on Jul 13, 2011 (gmt 0)

Other than having only ONE (1) h1 per document/page, the number of h2 etc is unimportant. It is nice to maintain semantic sense when using header tags, but will not affect SEO one way or the other. Most SEs these days ignore (give no weight) h tags.

BeeDeeDubbleU

7:16 am on Jul 13, 2011 (gmt 0)

Most SEs these days ignore (give no weight) h tags.

Do you have a reference for this?

g1smd

7:57 am on Jul 13, 2011 (gmt 0)

Google has said that multiple h1 is expected in some circumstances.

tangor

8:18 am on Jul 13, 2011 (gmt 0)

Do you have a reference for this?

I've slept since then, but do recall a number of references over the years that the original "early SEO" ABUSE of h1 was high on the hit list of "things to ignore" as far back as 2000, along with white text on white backgrounds, keyword stuffing in meta, et al. Personally I don't care one way or the other since I use headers as they were intended: semantic hints for articles/documents, not "font styling"...

Given our recent collective Panda experience it appears the h tag (headers) are further moot as even semantically correct usage has been thrashed as well as those without a clue to original purpose.

m8fyu

11:53 pm on Jul 13, 2011 (gmt 0)

Great info. Thanks guys.